Questions about liberation wars as the UFP

[VILenin]

Some rookie questions here: I'm fighting a liberation war as the UFP against the Cardassians to liberate one of the minors they've vassalized, and looking at the war screen I'm a little confused about how I actually win the war. I can surrender, offer status quo, or create a neutral zone, none of which end the Cardassian's overlordship. Do I need to just keep fighting until they surrender?

I'm also unclear about how the war progress bar works. I've occupied a number of Cardassian systems and they don't control any of mine, and I've won a number of battles, but the the overall progress is -13. Do I need to occupy the minor power I'm trying to liberate to get war progress? Also, the bar is filling in yellow on both ends and working towards the center. I'm guessing this represents the war exhaustion of both sides, lowering the threshold to max out your war score and force capitulation?

As a side note, I do wish it were easier for the Federation to liberate worlds from other powers. Only being limited to three claims, paying out the nose in influence for them, and only being able to make claims during a defensive war makes it really tough to liberate annexed systems like Bajor (as a bunch of people have already commented). I'd love to see an option where the Federation is still restricted in taking systems from themselves but have an easier time forcing other Majors to release minor powers they've conquered.

 

[ConstantineXII]

Do I need to just keep fighting until they surrender?

Yes. But you'll need to liberate the subject nation by directly occupying it to gain war progress.

Do I need to occupy the minor power I'm trying to liberate to get war progress?

Yes. If you're liberating a subject nation you need to take that system and the planet.

the bar is filling in yellow on both ends and working towards the center. I'm guessing this represents the war exhaustion of both sides, lowering the threshold to max out your war score and force capitulation?

That's how it works. When war exhaustion meets with War progress they should give up.

only being able to make claims during a defensive war makes it really tough to liberate annexed systems like Bajor

You should be able to claim systems via the diplomacy screen, or by pressing the claims button to the left of the lower UI bar in galactic view.

 

[Ferrous Will]

You should be able to claim systems via the diplomacy screen, or by pressing the claims button to the left of the lower UI bar in galactic view.

As UFP this is not true, their policy forbids this unless they are in a defensive war.

There is path that waives this restriction, but I've never tried it myself.

 

[VILenin]

@ConstantineXII Thanks for the info! I wouldn't call it counter-intuitive since I was kind of guessing that's how it worked, but I didn't see an explanation in the game so the clarification is very helpful.